“Forever Green” by The Veldt

Led by twin brothers Daniel and Danny Chavis, who have cited both Echo and the Bunnymen and Public Enemy as influences, The Veldt bills itself as a “soul-shoegaze-alternative rock” band. That’s a lot, but their December 2023 performance of the unreleased “Forever Green” for KEXP more than fulfills that description.

With five(!) guitarists on stage, The Veldt create as thick a wall of sound as you can imagine, with each guitarist adding gorgeous dynamics, from chiming chords aplenty to EBow-powered drones. Meanwhile, Daniel Chavis’ dramatic singing is a far cry from the vocal style usually associated with shoegaze, where singers are just treated as another instrument buried somewhere in the mix.

This performance is actually my introduction to The Veldt, who have been going strong since 1986 and have opened for the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cocteau Twins, and Oasis. Their 1994 album Afrodisiac was featured on Pitchfork’s list of the 50 best shoegaze albums of all time, where it was deemed “the great lost American shoegaze classic.” In other words, it looks like I’ve got a lot of great music to catch up on in the coming weeks.